Claude Lelouch is a director, producer, screenwriter and cameraman. In summary, he likes to touch everything and even a little master everything. His filmography shows the extent of his immeasurable love for cinema, with an Oscar for best foreign film for: A man and a woman. Impossible not to mention: The thug, Adventure is adventure, One and the other, Itinerary of a spoiled child among more than 50 films. Claude Lelouch celebrated his 85th birthday last October and for this occasion, an anniversary event will take place at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, on Monday November 14, 2022. A symphonic show with 80 musicians from the Prague Philharmonic conducted by Vahan Mardirossian.
franceinfo: 85 years old and still this desire to shoot, film, tell stories?
Claude Lelouch: Yes. Simply because I’m curious. I quickly understood that life was a race of hassles in wonderland and I really like this mix. In addition, right now, I’m getting closer to the finish line, the big finish line, so the hours have become years and I want to do more and more things. I was not meant to go on vacation.
In the images that we will be able to see during this cine-concert that you have meticulously chosen, cult images. We discover Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, Jacques Brel, Aldo Maccione, Yves Montand, Annie Girardot, Johnny Hallyday, Eddy Mitchell. The majority have disappeared. What view do you have on death, precisely?
First, I wanted to pay homage to them. I miss them very much, all of them. So I want to party with them. I wanted to celebrate his 85th birthday. So far I’ve been lucky to get through the drops. We’re going to have a crazy, crazy evening. There are all those who are no longer there and then there are all those who are still there, who may be on stage too. There will have been an incredible number of surprises.
I want all the people who love life, cinema and who believe that the best is yet to come to be at this anniversary film-concert so that we can pay a great tribute to all these actors who died and then to life.
Claude Lelouchat franceinfo
I would have liked to call all my films Merci la vie. So I want us to have a lot of fun at this evening and see how cinema is a form of eternity. I mean all those names you talked about, they’re alive and well. There, all of a sudden, I made a film with the most beautiful cast in the world.
Your journey is also a beautiful revenge on life. You discovered cinema while hiding in dark rooms to escape the Gestapo. Your father gave you your first camera so that you could film the news. Has this camera become an extension of your gaze?
What I see through my camera is very different from what I see with my eyes. It’s a microscope that allows me to see the invisible.
Claude Lelouchat franceinfo
It’s curious to say that, but the cinema can film the invisible. He can film the present and the present, it’s the only thing that belongs to us. He has no time to grow old. And then the present, it makes you dream. We can dream in the present and since we never die from an overdose of dreams, we must take advantage of it. So cinema has given meaning to my life. The great love story of my life is cinema. I don’t know how many films I have left to make, maybe one or two, and so I intend, with these last two films, to celebrate and say thank you to life!
When we mention your name, we immediately think of “Da ba da ba da“. What does this score evoke for you?
Well it evokes the evening when Francis Lai made me listen to the theme for the first time. And that evening, he made me listen to about ten themes which were all magnificent, very beautiful and I said: but listen, that’s not it. We need something really simple so anyone can whistle it in two seconds. And he makes me listen to that and I tell him: listen, that’s it, we have it. We knew we were going to do a song because I needed a song and since we didn’t have the lyrics, we were like: “Da ba da ba da Da ba da ba da” and when we found the lyrics we thought we had to keep that too.
This cine-concert was built like a film, simply with the greatest artists brought together. I say artists because there are all the trades too, all the personalities you have put to work, even shadow trades, often the greatest were by your side.
Even operators, technicians, all that. It’s great to see all the people we mentioned in the same film, because in the end I have the feeling that I only made one film.
Was it mandatory to blow out your 85 candles with the public one-on-one?
At my age, I don’t know what awaits me. The statistics are not in my favor, the finish line is getting closer. I said to myself that we could have waited for 90, but will I reach them? I said let’s party right now! And then 8 + 5 = 13 so it’s a good number.
To follow, there is an idea, it is to perhaps do a tour in France.
Yes, because if indeed the people who have been to the Palais des Congrès have fun, we would like everyone else to have fun too.